The present invention relates to image reproduction devices for reproducing image data stored in a recording medium or the like.
In recent years, the performance of devices, such as a digital camera and the like, for recording/reproducing an image have been rapidly improved and such devices have become capable of taking a highly resolution image. Accordingly, a size of data of an image is increased and a longer time is required to reproduce the image. With increase in capacity of recording medium, a large amount of image data can be stored and thus, when a user wants to reproduce an image from a recording medium, the user has to find a desired image from a large number of images. Then, it is desired to quickly reproduce a plurality of images and makes it easier for a user to find a desired image.
To meet such needs, image reproduction devices in which a read-ahead operation to view thumbnail images and a main image is performed are disclosed, for example, in Japanese Laid-Open Publication No. 2002-101329 and Japanese Laid-Open Publication No. 2001-8071. Also, an image reproduction device for displaying thumbnail images which require only short time for image reproduction and then a main image is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Laid-Open Publication No. 10-79913. Moreover, for example, Japanese Laid-Open Publication No. 10-63688 discloses an image reproduction device in which with a plurality of images skipped, a desired image is displayed, so that an image to be reproduced can be detected at high speed.
However, in a known image reproduction device, when read-ahead of images is performed in a multi-reproduction mode in which a plurality of reduced-size images are displayed in a single page, only reduced-size images in adjacent pages to a displayed page are read ahead and a large number of images have to be read out at a time when a page is turned. Thus, at a time of page turning, a display operation of a new page after page turning and a read-ahead operation of a large number of images (thumbs) have to be performed at the same time. Therefore, it takes a long time to reproduce a new page.